Tongue Ties...

Yesterday we went to the doctors, Euna has had a string of colds and bugs and as much as I KNEW I was going to get the "it's just the time of year" speech I wanted to double check.

As it would happen I got the loveliest German doctor. He had a real soft, calm doctors voice and whilst he did indeed give me the "it's just the time of year" speech he did it so nicely without the slightest hint of "you hysterical moron, do not darken our doors with you idiotic neurosis again". 

So understanding, he was, I took it upon myself to ask a couple of nagging questions I'd had, one of which was about her tongue tie. Now previously when I had asked about this I had been told it was slight and as long as she was feeding I shouldn't worry.

Anyway... Turns out her tongue tie is significant, about 75-80% which is apparently a lot. Doctor was surprised we were breastfeeding and when I said "oh no she's always been a good feeder" he asked hadn't I been in pain? Well yes I had. ALOT! Tears were had at every feed infact, then right at the point of breaking I was admitted to hospital for other reasons, administered a fair amount of heavy duty pain killers (this is all pre-blogging days, I will catch you up one day) and so the pain was masked and forgotten.

Apparently it's to do with the tongue not being able to come out and around the nipple and make a proper latch. The latch is consequently then achieved by harder more concentrated suction on the nipple. Dr. Google also informs me it can lead to permanent nipple damage! YOWZERS! 

Well this happy ending goes that that didn't happen and since about week 4/5 breastfeeding has been a joy but it's good information and further confirmation that we could all benefit from knowledge like this being more widely available! How did it take SO long for this to come to my attention? And I am by NO means a passive parent, if this had been on the radar I WOULD have picked it up.

Lesson

1. Keep working on my EPIC breastfeeding post... Clearly there is still much to learn.

2. More research to be done on the tongue tie, for now we have decided to leave it and avoid "the snip" until such time that she will not need a general anaesthetic for it or if we see it causing her some issues with speech.

Introducing Crockery...

THE book (Gill Rapley's "Baby Led Weaning") says not to confuse them with crockery at first. It will distract from eating, they will think it's a toy and they will play with it.

Now look at this face... 

This face tells me "LIES GILL! LIES! Would I PLAY with a plate of food?"

Erm... Well she looks keen...

Granted Gill... there is some mess...

 Well that's not the right way up...

 Ok now you're PLAYING the bongo bowl...

I concede Gill. My 9 month old is not ready for crockery. In my defence however, it makes for great photo opportunities.

Lesson

1. We don't know until we try.

2. I need to read up on teaching table manners and using plates and bowls.

(Note: I was given this Nuby Flower Child bowl for free but I was not paid for this post and all thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are 100% my own.)

Wordless Wednesday... Us.

DON'T FORGET TO LINK UP YOUR SNAPS FOR THE CHANCE TO BE FEATURED ON OUR BRAND SPANKING NEW PHOTO HOP!!!!

Snap Your Whipper Snappers #2

We're baaaaaaaack! This is the second week of our blog hop series and our FIRST week of featuring our favourite snaps from last week! 

Charlotte has picked a great feature over at The Life of Mummy Rawles so go check it out and maybe if you linked up last week it's YOU...!

My choice for my first feature is this gorgeous snap of the beautiful Reagan linked up by Mummy Lanaya over at Raising Reagan... I love a good Instagram pic and the dancer in me could NEVER ignore a little girl in a pink tutu! I can imagine Reagan having more than a couple of twirls around her bedroom and pretending she's the swan princess, so adorable! Thank you for linking up Lanaya I just loved this snap...

Here's the hop... If you take an excessive amount of photographs of your little ones then THIS is the blog hop for you...

Snap your Whipper Snappers

is the second in a series of six weekly blog hops we will be hosting where you are invited to link up posts featuring pics of your little pickles!

We will leave the hop open Monday to Friday and then next week Charlotte and I will each 

FEATURE OUR FAVOURITE! 

Here's how it works...

1. Follow your hosts...

Learning Lessons in Mummyography

The Life of Mummy Rawles

2. Grab the hop button and post it on the post you want considered for a feature.

<div align="center"> <a href="http://learninglessonsinmummyography.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank"><img alt="learninglessonsinmummyography" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKGh6EXhPXjVGuZEJO4gOkWiLIGZySoFZb5A2jTXQg1jOymk4uJtBmrC7j0qMrvtojsWIGzP4wQkYLaPoBi2Oeop2UBqjxXCw4xG48gV0jNpbF2dL8_2SwBNrDSmSltY6vnz1VcOFbXmI/s1600/SYWS.jpg"/></a>
3. Link up!

4. Get social! Follow and feedback to your fellow snappers! Make new friends and get new ideas for your snapping!

5. Tweet about the hop! Tweet

6. Drop back at the weekend to see who we feature!!!

Here's my favourite for this week from our Friday trip to the zoo, next to the rhinos...

Happy Endings

The other day I was watching a Derren Brown programme and in it he told this woman he would be following her with hidden cameras and setting up scenarios that would cause her to make profound decisions and consequently change as a person. He did no such thing but because the woman had this in mind she saw deeper meaning in her daily occurrences, reflected on everything intently and made profound changes to her ways of thinking and conduct by the end of the week.

I spend a lot of time thinking about why I blog, what's the point, why do I enjoy it and what is this satisfaction I find? I had put a lot of it down to the sharing part of blogging. The "putting it out there" and receiving feedback. But after that Derren Brown programme I wonder... Is the real value the fact that this blog makes me look for meaning in the mundane? Is it that it brings out the essential optimist in me? 

After all I wouldn't have much hope in gaining faithful followers if I ended every post in the negative! So it does make me look for the happy ending even just in a crappy day. That's cool. Essentially everything in life is about perspective. Glass half full or half empty? A bad day or an opportunity for growth? 

I'm really grateful for my blog this week. It's been a great resource to help me problem solve my Mummy blues. The solution was back-up... And back-up was called. Good times. Happy weekend all!

If only these guys could write a blog... I'd wanna read that blog...

 St. Botolph's Priory...

 Oh baby girl... I'll drown in those eyes one day... What a way to go...

 I may have taken the last of my leafy Autumn pictures...

 I love winter sun... I swear the sky is never this blue in the summer...

 Coffee...

 Love these... When "back-up" is not with me to reign in my spending I am going back for this awesome poster...

 Dec the halls... And the coffee shops...

Nana...

 Retro...

 Snug as a bug...

 In a rug...

 Cheap street...

 New jeans... On account of an incident in the coffee shop... "Lunch: The Return"... 

Lesson:

1. We are no where NEAR the stage where spare clothes aren't required.

2. Find a happy ending to your day. Everyday.

POP BACK FOR OUR HOP LATER!!!!

Friday Zoo Trip...

I must be feeding off all those American post-holiday-food-overload-coma vibes from across the water, because today I thought, did or said nothing even slightly interesting. Today I completely zoned out of everything, after a tough, long week my brain and body went on shut down and we enjoyed a day in hibernation in comfy clothes with the heating cranked up. If I was a Windows PC today was "defrag" day. 

So here are some pics from our Friday at the zoo... (We have "Gold Cards" which means unlimited access, Colchester Zoo is a seriously fantastic facility that does amazing things for animal rights and conservation, if you're nearby check it out!)

Beautiful light, I love sunny winter days...

Flamingos...

 Iguana...

Leopard...

Feeding the giraffes...

Home time... Happy weekend.

Lesson

You have to have cold weather coma days so you can make memories other days.

Call for Back-Up!! (Weak...?)

The other day I went on to a pregnancy forum and published a post asking the other Mums what they thought the hardest part about being having a baby was.

The answers were not surprising. Tiredness, sense of responsibility, housework, cooking, crying/moaning, lack of "me" time.

The notable part was, and this is is kind of an extension from my last post (I must not of got it all out in one go), the words before their thing.

"The CONSTANT moaning..."
"The NEVER having me time..."
"ALWAYS having housework to do..."
"The PERMANENT tiredness..."

The hardest thing about being a mum is that you are constantly, always, never not and permanently a mum! I'm feeling that a bit today. I'm feeling that age old weight of parenthood. The enormity and permanence of it looms a little today.

Solution? Her smiling face...

...and remembering I'm not alone in this. Before I am a Mum, WE are a family. That feels good.

"I am Mum" sounds lonely.

"We are a family" reminds me I have back-up. My back-up needs some time back at base camp. (Roll on Christmas.)

What's interesting is for a moment I considered not writing that. For a moment I thought "does that make me sound weak?" and I'd be willing to bet my last pound that I am not the only one who would think that. Why do we need the world to believe that we could do everything on our own? We actually spent a lot of money on a very special day telling all our friends and family and the state that we didn't think we could do it alone. That we didn't want to do it alone. We planned to do this together. It's just me who decided to try and go rogue this week.

Lesson:

America celebrated thanksgiving yesterday. Before thanks comes awareness of what you have. Be aware and use it. Don't be too proud to use it and stop seeing the weakness in needing it.